Legacy of Deceit
by Chaotic Manifest
Summary: Sequel to Darkening Skies... After two years, Atmos has finally recovered from the assault of Night Aerrow and the Storm Hawks now seek answers to the mystery of Marrshal. Will they find what they seek or are they falling into a trap laid by him?
1. Burning Veils

Legacy of Deceit

**Legacy of Deceit**

**Legacy of Deceit: Burning Veils**

The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.

Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.

Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.

**Chapter 1**

Two years after the events of Darkening Skies…

Despite the retreat of most Cyclonian forces and the lack of a Dark Ace to prey upon the Sky Knights, it had taken a year for the Sky Knights to liberate the vast swaths of conquered land, primarily due to the widespread use of psionic crystals that had been a hallmark of the Cyclonian occupation. Piper's blocker bombs had been vital to undoing the effects of the infernal crystals, but in order to deploy the special bombs, they had to actually battle over the brainwashed terras until the psionic cores were found. At that point they needed to occupy the core until the bombs were armed and detonated, finally freeing the terra. Predictably it had been an incredibly time-consuming process, particularly with tensions building between the Ancients and Rex Guardians. While they had been fighting to reclaim their homes this tension had been subdued, but for nearly a year now the Sky Knights had been a peace, their offensive halted by the massive defense perimeter the Cyclonians had established to defend their traditional holdings, built using resources stolen from the Atmosian terras. To further amplify the problem, nearly every squadron had taken a side, favoring either the Ancients or the Rex Guardians. Peace, oddly enough, had fostered conflict. While the two groups remained respectful of each other, with the exception of the leading groups of each faction, and continued to work together for the common defense; many of the neutral squadrons feared it was only a matter of time before actual hostilities began.

Only one notable squadron had refused to take a side, the Storm Hawks. This put them in an awkward position whenever they had to negotiate or interact with another Sky Knight squadron and this difficulty of communication had caused the Storm Hawks to become increasingly isolated and independent of the other squadrons. As it was, this suited them just fine as it made their current mission that much easier. It was a mission that they had been planning for over two years now; the quest to find out information about the mysterious spymaster of Cyclonia. Unfortunately, they only had two bits of information to go on: the man was called Marrshal and the Merbs might have information regarding him. The Merbs were infamous for their paranoia and only recently had allowed the Storm Hawks permission to land on their terra. In fact, that was where the Storm Hawks were headed right now, their goal was simple: to uncover everything they could about the spymaster of Cyclonia.

* * *

"How are you Stork? Holding up okay?" Aerrow asked as the Condor shook due to the violent storm outside.

"I should be good until we reach Terra Merb, provided the storm doesn't get any worse… Which it will." Stork answered his eye twitching slightly as he added the last sentence. "Otherwise, we're about twenty minutes out from the terra, give or take a wind gust."

"Sounds good, I'll go inform Starling and Piper, they should be happy that we are so close, particularly since they want answers on this spymaster issue more than anyone else." Aerrow commented before he turned to leave.

"What about you Aerrow?" Stork asked suddenly, "After all, he was the one who set you up to become Night Aerrow…" In the two years since he had been rescued, Aerrow had slowly regained his memories of the battle over Terra Neon and the events that had led to his transformation into Night Aerrow. He still woke up in the night every so often, nightmares of that horrible time tearing through any chance for a peaceful night's rest. The nightmares had greatly lessened in their frequency thankfully… As for the spymaster…

"I honestly don't know what to think, there is no question that the man is dangerous, but I don't think that finding out more about his past will help us counter him any more than simply defeating him in combat." Aerrow said hesitantly.

"Actually, it will help a lot Aerrow." Piper said as she suddenly walked onto the Condor's bridge. "See, we really need to know where he came from because we need to see if there is a pro-Cyclonian conspiracy in Atmosia and he might be our only lead. In addition, we can find out more about him, which should allow us to counter his schemes and lure him into a trap where we can capture him when we learn what he watches for in his spying."

"I see, well, I hope we can accomplish all that, but we still don't know what kind of information the Merbs will have." Aerrow said.

"I'm sure they will have everything they could observe plus some conjecture." Piper said, prompting a small chuckle from Stork.

* * *

The throne room of Cyclonia was a dark and chilling place, particularly so after the recent string of defeats Cyclonia had suffered. The commanders rarely were called in anymore as Master Cyclonis spent most of her time brooding on her throne and hated any distractions that roused her out of her contemplations. Today was an exception however as today all the commanders had been called into a meeting with Master Cyclonis.

"It is time to take stock of the situation, everyone report on your recent activities and status of your holdings." Master Cyclonis said icily.

"Everything's good." Snipe said, earning him several looks from the other commanders.

"I am currently working on a new form of anti-air defense to protect our territories from attack. My current territories are once again firmly under the control of Cyclonia." Ravess said primly.

"I continue to work on getting back into prime fighting form; already I have been able to take out several Sky Knight Squadrons who were foolish enough to test our defenses." The Dark Ace said idly, leaving only Marrshal to present his report.

"Our plans proceed as expected…" the spymaster said in an unfocused tone, his mind not really on the meeting.

"Very well, Snipe and Ravess, return to your terras and start working on ways to expand Cyclonia once more. Marrshal and Dark Ace, you remain behind.

"As you wish Master Cyclonis." Ravess said as she and Snipe left. As the sibling commanders left, Master Cyclonis turned to face the remaining two commanders. Before she could say anything however, she faded away, leaving only the Dark Ace and Marrshal in the throne room.

"So Marrshal how is she?" the Dark Ace asked seriously as he turned to his fellow commander.

"She and the other two still remain in their comas, nothing I have been able to do has brought them back to consciousness. Whatever she did to retrieve those two must have been impossibly taxing on her body, she nearly died and the other two almost seem to be out of phase with our world. I cannot even begin to give you an estimate of when they all might regain consciousness." Marrshal said as he tucked away the illusion crystal he had used to project the image of Master Cyclonis.

"Let us hope it is soon, your charade has bought us a lot of time, but people are becoming suspicious, you cannot correctly duplicate her voice even if your ventriloquism is able to keep up the appearance of her speaking. You know better than anyone what will happen if the Talons find out the truth; Cyclonia cannot exist without Master Cyclonis."

"I know, I am working as fast as possible to find a solution, but her affliction is so unnatural I am not sure what I really can do to help her recover." Marrshal said, true dismay tinting his voice.

"May I see them again?" the Dark Ace asked quietly, realizing that such a request was actually an imposition on Marrshal. It required him to lead the Dark Ace through the secret passages of Cyclonia to a hidden medical facility, a super-sterile environment intended to treat unknown illnesses and peculiar medical conditions. By entering, the Dark Ace invariably had to go through an entire regimen of sanitation procedures meant to ensure that no contaminates escaped or entered. Overall, his visits meant nearly two hours of work for the staff of the facility. However, Marrshal had commented before that familiar people could possibly speed a patient's recovery and, given the lack of helpful medical knowledge in this situation, anything that might help was welcome.

* * *

So, after a twenty minute trek through the dark secret passages of Cyclonia, the pair arrived at the secret medical facility located at the peak of one of the sub-terras around Cyclonia. How they crossed from the main tower to the sub-terras without crossing a bridge or descending below the Wastelands was a mystery to the Dark Ace, particularly since he had no seen any portal gates or teleport stones. He would have asked Marrshal about it, but the spymaster was understandably reticent when it came to discussing his operations and so the Dark Ace held his peace.

In comparison to the rest of Cyclonia which was dark and industrialized, the medical center was brightly light and had a very high-tech, streamlined appearance. Whitewashed walls, floors and ceilings framed a room filled with a variety of chemistry equipment and crystal engineering apparatuses which surrounded a series of ten fluid filled columns, each column had its own semi-circle of equipment surrounding it and were designed to be isolated from the other columns and workstations. Right now only five of the columns were occupied, three for Master Cyclonis and the two others Marrshal had found with her and the other two occupied by a pair of Talon guards from the Great Expanse research site. The Talons had been attacked by a sky siren and Marrshal had wanted their nervous systems to be studied to see if there was some way to develop immunity to their illusion powers. The remaining three were in much more critical condition and had been for some time, their lives sustained only by the nutrient fluids they floated in and the breathing masks they wore.

"Master…" the Dark Ace said quietly as he looked at the tube where Master Cyclonis floated in her comatose state, so completely helpless despite the immense power she must have commanded. Especially considering that she had been able to bring back those two… "Any progress on discovering what happened to her exactly?"

"Sorry sir, the black substance which has consumed her body defies analysis and appears to have replaced even her normal organic body so we cannot operate to extricate her from the material." One of the medical technicians working at the tube's workstation answered hesitantly.

"What about Night Aerrow and Dark Piper?"

"They appear to be frozen in time somehow, they have not moved at all nor can we actually touch them without some kind of reactionary pain on our part… Whenever we transport them onto one of the medical beds for a checkup we have to use levitation crystals. Speaking of which, we need more levitation crystals, they shatter after only one use thanks to whatever field surrounds them."

"This conclusion is new, how did you determine they are frozen in time?" the spymaster interrupted suddenly in a harsh tone, clearly displeased that he had not received a report on this earlier.

"Sorry sir… As for how we reached this conclusion, we accidentally brought a watch too close to Dark Piper during one of her exams. The device promptly stopped functioning whenever it came within three inches of her then restarted when removed from that area. The clock in question is sitting on the desk over there, as you can see it is nearly an hour behind our own time." The technician continued, indicating a crystal powered clock on the workstation near the Dark Ace. As the man had said, the clock was fifty three minutes behind the current time.

"I see you tested this hypothesis several times…" Marrshal observed dryly. "What about the health of the three? Aside from the comas…"

"They appear to be in perfect health. Even though Master Cyclonis no longer seems to have any internal organs, based on our scans with scanning binoculars, she still apparently has a heartbeat. We don't know how."

"Fascinating to be sure…" The Dark Ace said in an irritated tone, annoyed that these men could talk about Master Cyclonis as if she were simply some typical patient rather than the leader of Cyclonia whose life was still in danger.

"Be at peace commander," Marrshal said soothingly, "We understand the direness of the situation but you must understand that there is nothing we can do. You cannot expect these men to operate as though each day was a crisis, they have to settle into a routine or they will go mad from the stress. This is simply their routine; you should be relieved that they are not worried about any of their health."

"Good point…" Dark Ace conceded as he turned back to look at Master Cyclonis, "I just wish there was some way to rouse them from their slumber."

"There may be one way sir." One of the medics commented as he looked up from his work. "As we reported to our commander, the source of the material consuming Master Cyclonis is the crystal imbedded in her Cyclonian Seal. This crystal appears to be breaking down the order of her body into a chaotic form. Our commander theorized that if we expose it to a similar source of chaos energy, it might stop what it is doing to her in the same way a virus will not attack itself since there would be nothing gained as a result."

"Or we could accelerate her condition." Marrshal said, cutting off anything further the man had to say, "I will not take that risk with her health, particularly if something goes wrong, besides, the only source of such energy we have is the Dying Light crystals according to the notes Piper left us. We only have two left and we may need them to defend ourselves."

"Nevertheless, take my Dying Light crystal Marrshal; use it to treat Master Cyclonis however you see fit." The Dark Ace said as he pulled out his Dying Light crystal and handed it to the spymaster. "If there is any chance of reviving her, we must take it."

"Very well, but only as a last resort." Marrshal said as he tucked the Dying Light crystal away, hiding it in the hidden pockets of his cloak. "Now, I must ask you to leave Dark Ace, I have a very important meeting I must attend and I would hate for you to get lost in the tunnels."

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Marrshal walked into one of the many spy chambers hidden throughout Cyclonia, acknowledging the spies who were working at their stations as he made his way to the coordinators office. Rather than the captains that typically commanded the regiments of Talons, Marrshal had termed his officers coordinators since it accurately described their function. In this case, the coordinator of this chamber was Kale, the Talon he had recruited over two years ago. The man had an incredible aptitude for spy work and had risen quickly through the ranks and his most recent feat would earn him the title of Marrshal's right hand man, replacing Tenmos, who had unfortunately passed on during an escape attempt from one of the Atmosian terras during the resurgence of the Sky Knights. An unfortunate occurrence, Marrshal had come to rely on the dependability Tenmos displayed… but life was change and Kale would be a worthy replacement.

"Greetings Kale." Marrshal said as he entered the coordinator's office. "You have something interesting for me?"

"Yes spymaster, we have found you an inroad to the oldest knowledge on Atmos." Kale said no pride evident in his voice despite the impressiveness of his accomplishment.

"A meeting with the Loremaster of Terra Rex?" Marrshal said; keeping his tone neutral despite the happiness he felt. Finally, some answers to an old riddle…

"Yes sir, we presented a history student from Atmosia with the idea to interview the Loremaster in order to create a permanent account of their history. We then kidnapped the student after he sent in his request and had it approved. He is in Terra Nocturne now."

"Excellent work Kale; that should prevent anyone from tracking this directly back to us." Marrshal said, handing out one of his rare compliments. Atmosian investigators might eventually track the events to come back to the poor hapless student, but there would be nothing concrete to warrant further investigation. "I will leave immediately. In the meantime Kale, I promote you to director. Here is your badge of office." Marrshal continued as he handed over a Cyclonian crest that had a thin ring of navy blue crystal ringing it.

"Thank you sire." Kale responded as he took the badge and replaced his previous insignia, which had a violet ring of crystal.

"Now then, head for Terra Nocturne and move our operations there to Alternate Nocturne 4, where you will await the arrival of the Storm Hawks. When they arrive, make a fight of it before telling them they can find me on Terra Polis. Afterward, pack up everything in Nocturne and move our operations back to the primary location for Nocturne."

"As you command sir."


	2. Chapter 2

Legacy of Deceit

**Legacy of Deceit: Burning Veils**

The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.

Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.

Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.

**Chapter 2**

The Storm Hawks slowly walked toward the main library on Terra Merb, trying to avoid the nervous and paranoid glances they received from the Merbs around them. It was understandable; visitors rarely came to Terra Merb so it made sense that the residents would be more suspicious of them than usual. Hopefully once they got to the main library they would be able to work in peace and not have to worry able Merbs constantly watching them, although Aerrow had his doubts about that. Thankfully the walk to the library was not far and the Storm Hawks arrived after only a few minutes. As they headed inside the library, they were greeted by a librarian who quickly directed them to the personal records before disappearing behind her desk and leaving the Storm Hawks to their quest.

After thanking the hiding librarian, the Storm Hawks headed to where the personal records were kept, a large circular two story room where the second story consisted of a balcony that ringed the outer edge of the room. On the ground floor the bookcases were arranged in nested half circles surrounding a central reading and scribing area. Pillars formed a perimeter around these bookcases and supported the balcony, which over-shadowed a ring of bookcases that ran around the outer wall of the room. On the second story, the layout was much different, a necessity due to the donut shaped design of the balcony. A main aisle formed the inner perimeter of the layout with bookcases running perpendicularly to the aisle from the aisle to the wall. Every last bookcase was full, meaning their search might take some time to complete, although all they had to do was find the 'M' section of the records here and make a thorough search of the tomes stored there. The 'M' section was not difficult to find, thanks to the labels on each bookcase, and was located on the second floor near the staircase that led from the first floor to the second floor. Each Storm Hawk took a bookcase and immediately began searching each book. Since the man was a master of espionage, if the book was still here it would likely have been hidden inside another book or behind several others. Three hours of searching later though, and the Storm Hawks were ready to give up, having searched every last tome in the 'M' section. Not a single book had made mention of Marrshal nor had any been hiding another record.

"Is it possible that his record only exists in some private library Stork?" Starling asked as she dejectedly tossed another book to the floor.

"No, every record is duplicated as a matter of course to prevent anything from being lost and this library was designed to withstand any number of world ending events so our knowledge could be preserved for the future…" Stork answered as he immersed himself in a book on the Great Expanse.

"We must be missing something obvious; this guy loves to toy with people… Is it possible that he arranged this to be a wild goose chase?" Aerrow commented as he finished searching the bookcase he had taken with no results to show for the effort.

"He was not the one discussing it; some of his subordinates were talking about a rumor they heard." Starling recalled as she leaned against one of the bookcases.

"Still a chance he might have arranged… this…" Piper said as she gazed out across the first floor of the library.

"Piper, what is it?" Aerrow asked as he hurried to her side. "Oh, I see…"

"What is it?" Finn asked, taking up the new rallying call.

"Marrshal…" Piper said, pointing toward the floor below. "I always wondered why Aerrow pronounced his name with two 'r's'." Her simple statement quickly brought the other Storm Hawks over to see just what she was talking about. There below them, inscribed on top of the central four rings of bookcases were the letters needed to spell out the spymaster's name. However, they were scattered about and did not line up to spell his name but rather read M-a-r-s-r-h-a-l. It was clear that the inner ring of bookcases needed to be spun around to spell the man's name. Where they went from there though… they would find out soon enough.

As everyone but Finn went downstairs and tried to move the inner bookcase, they found that the structures were locked in place. Efforts to move the circle of bookcases resulted in nothing but wasted effort. After a short amount of discussion, the Storm Hawks decided to investigate the shelves in question further, checking out each individual book that was shelved under the inscribed letters.

"Here we go!" Piper announced suddenly as she pulled one of the bottom books off the shelf. "One of the books in each bottom row is a fake, hiding a spring loaded mechanism that inserts some kind of key into a slot in the floor. These books are pretty cleverly disguised too; according to Stork they contain the records of Merbs who published books relating to relaxation and learning to accept risk. Not much reason to investigate their records for most Merbs."

"Clever." Starling groused as she walked over to look at the mechanism. "It looks like these 'keys' only slide down into certain slots in the floor… Meaning that we need to move the other three rings…"

"How witty." Finn shouted down from the second story, "That would make it so that his name can only be read correctly from the 'Y' section of records." His comment prompted a stifled groan from the other Storm Hawks. It figured that the maniac would make some cheap little joke like that. After a moment to consider their options as well as quietly curse Marrshal for that pathetic joke, the Storm Hawks went to the second ring of shelves and started to push. The shelves moved easily enough and after a few seconds of movement two loud clicks resounded throughout the circular room. Wasting no time, the Storm Hawks moved the remaining two rings until they clicked in place as well. A moment after the last ring was slid into place, a quiet whirring sound emanated from beneath the floor accompanied by a quiet scrapping sound of stone against stone.

"Hey guys! A panel just opened in the floor of the central open space, looks like there's some kind of metal panel underneath." Finn announced from his lookout post. The others quickly raced forward to the reading area and found the metal panel Finn had noticed. A quick look revealed that the metal panel had some form of lock on it and the stone panel above had been slid away by a pair of gears set on a long metal shaft.

"There has to be a key here somewhere…" Piper said thoughtfully. "This shaft doesn't need to extend off in both directions from the panel, meaning that it must open something else here in this room. Everyone, search everywhere in a straight line along where this shaft runs, we're looking for something that would hide a key." As Piper finished speaking, the Storm Hawks spread out, thoroughly searching each shelf and pillar that was in line or near to being in line with the gear-shaft under the floor. At long last, after nearly thirty minutes, Aerrow found a small slot in one of the pillars that had not been there previously. Using his unignited blade as a hook, Aerrow slid the key out of its hiding spot.

"Guys, I found the key." He said loudly so everyone else could hear him.

"Really? So did I." Piper said as Finn added in that he had found one as well. With a frustrated sigh, Aerrow walked over to where the other Storm Hawks were gathering, wanting to compare his key with the others they had found. Unfortunately it seemed that each key was unique, none of them looked alike and it was likely that only one of them would unlock what they wanted to unlock.

"Which one is it?" Starling asked in an irritated tone, the run around they were being given beginning to wear on her last nerves.

"Probably all three…" Stork said in a weary tone, "Meaning that we would have to look for two more keyholes…"

"Stork! That's it!" Piper shouted exuberantly, "Most people would be so tired of this complicated set up that they wouldn't think of the possibility that all three keys might be necessary. Let's take a look at that metal panel again…"

As the Storm Hawks looked at the panel again, they noticed that two keyholes were hidden as slots on the screws that fastened the panel together. They would have been easy to miss to the casual observer, just what one would expect from the spymaster. Relieved that this time consuming ordeal would finally come to a close, the Storm Hawks quickly figured out which key went in which keyhole and unlocked the metal plate, Junko lifting it free of the hole to reveal a stairway that descended down into the foundations of the library. One by one, the Storm Hawks descended into the darkness below the library floor, cautious of any traps that might have been waiting for them. As the oppressive gloom enveloped them, Piper pulled out a Luna Crystal and activated it, softly illuminating the darkness with a pale blue light. The glow revealed that they were in a natural cave of some sort, not exactly what they had expected considering who they were dealing with.

"I wonder where this leads…" Aerrow said quietly, phrasing it more as a statement than an actual question. As he finished speaking, Aerrow slowly walked forward into the darkness, alert for any traps or ambushes that might be waiting for them down here. As he and the other Storm Hawks slowly made their way through the caves, Aerrow began to wonder just what kind of answers they would find at the end of this tunnel…

* * *

"Welcome Larn, it is good to see that we once again have a visitor to hear the stories…" the elderly doorguard of the Loremaster's Tower said as he opened the door to admit the history student. "So few people care to know about the old stories these days. I myself know them as well as the Loremasters themselves. At least with your help, the stories will be preserved for all time eh?"

"That's why I'm here." Larn said in a cheerful voice, happy to be taking part in such an amazing transcription of history. Inwardly, he did feel contempt, not for the Loremasters, but rather for the people of Terra Rex who had simply abandoned their history to rot out in this forsaken corner of Terra Rex. History was so important, how could people be so willing to simply forgo learning it? The Loremasters were famous throughout Free Atmos for the knowledge they kept and the honesty they maintained while disseminating it.

As the doorguard closed the gate behind him, Larn bowed respectfully to the elderly couple who sat patiently in a comfortable looking couch on the far side of the room. The couple was clearly ancient and in failing health, they both looked frail enough where a rogue breeze might break their bones. They were unattended except for the doorman, who was probably only ten years younger than them at most, no apprentices could be seen; no starry-eyed children circled around waiting for some old tale of heroic adventures. It was sad really, especially considering the pride Terra Rex took in its legacy and Marrshal knew in an instant that when these Loremasters died there would be no one to take up their heritage. Priceless knowledge wasted because the people of Terra Rex were too busy with the hustle and bustle of modern life… Except he would carry on their legacy, the message crystals he had hidden on his person would record every word for eternity. It was humbling that his plan would have such a positive side effect and he was glad that he had decided to follow through.

"It is so nice that someone has come to see us again." The elderly lady said as she settled into a more comfortable position. "No one has come to see us in years…"

"Such a wonderful opportunity should not be wasted, please, tell me everything you know." Larn said, not wanting to outright lie to the Loremasters, they deserved better than that.

"Everything? My, that could take some time…"

"I have all the time in the world and all the paper I could ever need." Larn said encouragingly as he took out his writing equipment.

"How nice! Very well then, let us start at the beginning, when there were only the Sky Knights known as the Archoni'ent, the Guardians of the Sky, now known as the Ancients…" The lady began; her husband and her alternating between who was telling the story as well as reinforcing each other so that no detail was left out. As the pair continued to lay out the entire history they had memorized Marrshal found it increasingly difficult to contain his excitement. This was better than he had even dared to imagine…


	3. Chapter 3

Legacy of Deceit

**Legacy of Deceit: Burning Veils**

The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.

Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.

Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.

**Chapter 3**

As the Storm Hawks continued to make their way through the dark, dank tunnel beneath Terra Merb, Stork began to feel an overwhelming sense of dread. Not that this was really different from any other day, but this feeling of dread was much more focused than usual, something about this place was familiar. He wracked his brain to try and remember what is was about this place that was so bad, but for the life of him he could not recall what it was… Maybe he should see a doctor to see if he had Thermion Memory Fever, better to know that he was going to lose all his memories now rather then later… At least that way he could prepare for the psychotic fits of panic that would overcome him as his memories disappeared and reappeared en masse.

"This seems to be some sort of mine shaft…" Piper suddenly commented, snapping Stork out of his train of thought. "Looks like it collapsed in a lot of places though, probably useless for mining now." Something she had said sounded familiar to Stork; he had been here before he was sure of it now. But why?

"AAHHH!" Finn screamed suddenly as he tripped over something and disappeared into the darkness.

"Finn! Are you alright?" Junko said are he grabbed into the shadows where Finn had fallen. "Man Finn, you feel awfully thin…" Junko said as he searched around in the darkness.

"Junko, I'm over here." Finn said as he stood up a few feet farther down the tunnel, dusting himself off as he did so.

"If you're over there, then whose arm am I holding onto?" Junko asked slowly as the other Storm Hawk's expressions went wide with realization of what Junko was probably holding.

"Junko, just drop it, I don't think we really want to know…" Piper said as she took a couple steps backward.

"Why? It's not like…" Junko started as he stood up, revealing the skeletal arm he was holding. "BWAHHHH!"

"AHHHH!" the other Storm Hawks cried in response to Junko's sudden outburst as the Wallop dropped the arm bones.

"Oh, I remember where we are now." Stork said; his demeanor in marked contrast to the other Storm Hawks. "We're in the old crystal mine here on Terra Merb, the one where we tried to find crystals so we could be more self-sufficient in case we were cut off from the rest of the world… It ended badly as I recall…"

"How so?" Piper asked, having recovered from the earlier surprises.

"There was a cave in… We are probably near the final collapse site, the only place where any of the miners were caught by the rock falls. This should be wonderfully morbid." Stork said; his eye twitching as he spoke. "I was pretty young when it happened."

"Yes, I know you were Stork." A voice suddenly said from farther down the tunnel where a large rock fall blocked the tunnel completely. "After all, I was there when it happened." As the voice finished speaking, a message/ illusion crystal assembly flared to life amidst the rocks, creating a projection of the spymaster that faced the Storm Hawks as the message crystal played out whatever message the man had recorded.

"What do you want Marrshal?" Finn asked harshly before he remembered that it was just a projection and could not respond.

"By now I am guessing that Finn has yelled at this projection… Let me remind you that this is merely an illusion put here for your benefit so you can at least 'talk' to someone." The illusionary Marrshal said in a conversational tone.

"Stupid spymaster…" Finn quietly whined to himself.

"I digress… If you have not figured it out by now, let me tell you one thing about myself before we begin: I am a Merb. If nothing else, you can trust me on this. Despite this, I am not prone to the same irrational paranoia that the rest of the Merbs have fallen prey to, I have found a positive outlet for that paranoia in making plans that prepare for every possible outcome. Now realize that my definition of positive is vastly different from yours, after all, I serve Cyclonia. As for my history, this is the only account you will find, all but a few members of my family having disappeared over my years as spymaster… I leave their fates to your imagination. When I was born, my parents were serving as engineers on many of the manufacturing terras so I never developed quite the level of paranoia that other Merbs have anyway. In spite of my parent's best efforts to instill proper Merb values in me, I found crystal science and mechanics to be far more fascinating and only developed a mild case of paranoia, one which I have managed to keep under control. During my years of travel, I grew to admire the Sky Knights and dreamed of becoming one someday, but that is neither here nor there and is not currently relevant. I was thirteen years old before I saw Terra Merb for the first time, which is ironic since thirteen is considered an unlucky number and coming to this terra was the most unfortunate thing to ever happen to me. While here, I was at least able to enjoy spending time with my extended family; well technically there was only one person in my family I could stand to be around, my baby cousin."

"Is there any way this could possibly take longer?" Finn quietly whispered to Piper as Marrshal continued to talk.

"Finn, please be quiet while I am talking, truly your rudeness is very predictable." The projection of Marrshal admonished Finn suddenly, startling the blond Storm Hawk. "Now where was I? Ah yes, my time on Terra Merb… I initially found this terra to be insufferably boring; there was nothing to do aside from indulge one's paranoid pursuits since I had already learned everything about crystals and machines that the Merbs knew. So I found new hobbies, observing the people and environment around me to develop my observation skills as well as studying history and archaeology. When I turned sixteen I went to train as a Sky Knight, but I soon proved to be incapable of fulfilling the expectations of a Sky Knight and failed the trials. No matter, I do not hold it against the Sky Knights; you must have standards after all. Rejected by the Sky Knights, I was forced to return to this accursed place; only now my fellow Merbs wanted nothing to do with me; I was too reckless in their opinion. Fed up with their paranoia, I decided to try to change how Merbs viewed life, what a stupid decision on my part! The Merbs did not want to change, they were perfectly happy, particularly with their new mine opening soon. I protested this and, unfortunately for me, I was in the mine when it collapsed and was buried alive amidst those less unfortunate than myself."

Throughout the entire story, Stork had been lost in deep thought, this was somehow familiar… He had heard this story before when he was still a young child.

"Wait, I know you!" Stork suddenly shouted, pointing at the projection of Marrshal that stood before them.

"By this point Stork would likely have recognized me, even though I supposedly died when he was only six. It is so good to see you again little cousin Stork, I know it has been a long time…"


	4. Chapter 4

Legacy of Deceit

**Legacy of Deceit: Burning Veils**

The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.

Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.

Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.

**Chapter 4**

"No way, you can't be Aviv; he would never do what you've done!" Stork said as he fell backward in surprise. He had never thought something like this would happen; a relative returning from the dead to haunt him once more. Not to mention that Aviv had always been friendly and benevolent, always willing to take time out of his studies to teach his favorite little cousin anything he wanted to know about mechanics. It had been his lessons that had helped Stork develop such an interest in mechanics even though he had not understood or remembered much of the content. Aviv had also taken care of him after his parents died, something which was completely at odds with his current behavior.

"Sorry little cousin, but I am Aviv." Marrshal said in an apologetic, almost remorseful voice before suddenly shifting back into the monotone Marrshal typically spoke in, "Or rather I was; the Aviv you knew could not tread the path I have chosen to follow so I choose a new name for myself… But I do regret betraying you like this… Particularly since my betrayal continues even now, this message having been linked to a series of explosive crystals near the entrance you used. Even if you started running for the entrance already, you will not reach it in time." The projection continued as several detonations were heard in the distance before the Storm Hawks could even move to run.

"Since we all are trapped here for the time being, I will inform you that this crystal contains information on how you can escape." The illusion reassured the Storm Hawks as it continued speaking. "For now however, I will tell you what happened after I was trapped in this mine."

"Like we have a choice you psychopath?"

"Not really, although believe me when I say this will not take long. Anyways, I managed to survive for three weeks in this place before I was rescued. Then, seven years ago I underwent an experimental procedure that allowed me to shapeshift however I saw fit and became a spy for Cyclonia in the hopes that I could assist her in the conquest of Atmos and use that global force to change all Atmos for the better. You have already seen my influence at work in Cyclonia with all the social reforms Master Cyclonis introduced. Unfortunately, the dominion of Cyclonia did not last long enough for me to fully enact my plan and thus measures must be taken to ensure that we succeed the next time. To be fair however, I will give you a chance to stop me. You see, there is a map hidden in the rubble to the right of this crystal; if you follow the directions on this map you will eventually find your way to me. I will happily wait for you to arrive, after all, I am not the one trapped in a dark cave… Speaking of which, the promised escape route is marked out with paint on the ceiling, something you probably did not notice on your way in. Better hurry, after all, the only reason I let you know about this place was so that I could distract you from investigating my current activities…" the message crystal finished as the illusion faded away, the charge on both crystals expended.

"Okay everyone move!" Aerrow shouted as the crystals deactivated and Piper grabbed the maps hidden in the rubble, "We need to find him and stop him."

"Right!" a couple of the others answered back as everyone took off down the tunnels marked with a painted line on the roof on the cave. As they hurried through the system of mine shafts though, something bothered Aerrow, namely in relation to the timeline they had been given by Marrshal. The man said he had escaped less than a month after being trapped in the cave, which would have meant Stork was six, maybe seven by that time. He then mentioned that he joined the Cyclonians seven years ago, leaving a gap of several years between the two events. Something was off and he intended to find out just what Marrshal had been doing during that time. Perhaps Stork could fill in some of the blanks.

"Stork, is everything he said true?" Aerrow asked as the group continued to run along through the inky blackness.

"Basically, he left out some of the finer details that would help tie everything together, but essentially he told us everything except what happened during that gap in time." Stork answered. "Primarily this: Aviv did want to change Merb society because the other Merbs isolated him, but not because he failed his Sky Knight trials. The real reason was because on his way back to Terra Merb, the ship his family was traveling on was attacked by Murk Raiders. According to reports, his parents and baby sister died during the attack, right in front of him as he watched if some reports are to be believed. Afterward, the other Merbs said something wasn't quite right with him. I don't remember him changing any, but I was young at the time, so who knows?"

"An interesting detail, no wonder he left it out." Starling said as they continued onward, "It is possible that he doesn't remember that incident."

"I guess we can ask him ourselves when we catch him…"

* * *

"Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me everything, I will make sure to keep these records safe and preserved for future generations." Larn said as he left the Loremaster's Tower. It had taken nearly two full days without a break, but he had listened to everything the elderly Loremasters had to say and it had proven to be invaluable. With the information he had gained, he could do more than simply destroy the Ancients, thanks to the factionalism that had divided the Sky Knights there was an opportunity to destroy them all… Marrshal was not particularly worried that the Storm Hawks would stop him; the route he had marked for them to escape from Terra Merb's underground would take at least a full day for them to follow, thanks to the extra tunnels he had included. Disoriented without visual markers to guide them, the Storm Hawks would not realize they were going in circles. Their next clue would take them to Terra Nocturne, which was a two days journey from Terra Merb, provided they wanted to avoid entanglements with Cyclonian patrols. If not, then they would probably take even longer to reach the terra. Even after that, it would take even more time for them to reach Terra Polis from Nocturne, so he had quite a bit of time. Regardless, he had to act quickly if he was to achieve complete success with his plan. That meant that his first stop needed to be on Terra Polis.

As he contemplated this, Marrshal shook his head quietly as he considered the full implications of his plan. Before it had been easy, he knew his manipulations would have no permanent effect on people aside from the Storm Hawks and they could recover from what he had done. This though... this plan could only end in one of two ways and the less ideal ending was unfortunately the more likely. The alternative though was even worse, he had to keep that in mind, Marrshal reminded himself as he fought down his own misgivings. Besides, these machinations were fun to run through he conceeded as he took off for Polis to enact the second stage of his plan.


	5. Chapter 5

Legacy of Deceit

**Legacy of Deceit: Burning Veils**

The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.

Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.

Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.

**Chapter 5**

Aerrow stared out the bridge windows of the Condor, his thoughts idling as he contemplated the blank featureless clouds that surrounded the carrier. In order to reach their final destination, it had been necessary to use the Wastelands as their medium of travel, but this meant they could no longer see the visual landmarks that were the only guide to their destination. This meant that they had to emerge from the safety of the Wastelands every so often to check their position, but the number of patrols in Cyclonian territory meant that these surveys could only be done at night with the running lights off to avoid detection. As a result, it had taken them nearly two and a half days to find their target, a spire of rock that stabbed up into the dark skies of Cyclonia like a knife. A preternatural darkness surrounded the terra; even the light from the running lights on the Condor seemed subdued, as if something consumed the light here.

Beside him, Aerrow felt Piper shudder slightly as a chill washed over the Condor and the temperature began to plummet. Light flakes of snow slowly drifted down around the Condor as if whatever darkened this place also sucked the heat out of the air itself. Piper knew it was just a clever deception; the effect was likely caused by a series of blizzard crystals that chilled the air. What caused the light dampening effect was unknown though, although Piper suspected that the assembly of solaris and leecher crystals she could see near the summit of the terra had something to do with the effect.

"Nice, we go from a creepy cave to a haunted terra… why can't this guy hang out in any normal places?" Finn groused from the rear of the bridge.

"Well, he's a spymaster, I'm sure working from the shadows is second nature to him." Starling said as she scanned the terra with the binoculars Stork had developed. "Ah, there's the entrance, hidden under that overhang…"

* * *

The Storm Hawks moved slowly through the dark hallways of Terra Nocturne, alert for any traps or an ambush, especially considering this was a den of spies and assassins. Then again, Marrshal had led them here; it was possible that he had something else in mind entirely besides entrapping the Storm Hawks. Then again, this entire base did not seem like something the spymaster would use to house his operations. Everything was well lit and obvious, it would be too easy to spot any ambush… unless the base itself was a trap, a supposition supported by the lack of any inhabitants. After a few more tense minutes wandering the hallways of the deserted base, the Storm Hawks entered a large assembly hall. This was where the trap would be…

"Greetings Storm Hawks." A figure on the far side of the room said, "I would applaud you for getting this far, but it was I who led you here in the first place so the impressiveness of your accomplishment is somewhat diminished…"

"Marrshal…?" Piper said slowly, something bothering her about this entire scenario. This was far too easy, no way would Marrshal make it this easy to find him, this must be a setup. This was confirmed a minute later as the walls of the room slid away to reveal a small army of Talons, all of them wielding assassin weapons instead of the usual weapon staves that were typical for Talons.

"As you can see, this is a trap." Marrshal said flatly from across the room as the Talons surged forward to engage the Storm Hawks. The Storm Hawks had been ambushed plenty of times before though and this time was nothing special except with regards to the fact that they had been expecting it. That analysis soon changed however, as the first row of the oncoming horde actually dodged to avoid the first counter attacks the Sky Knights performed, the rows further back compensating by slowing up to allow the initial attackers room to maneuver. These Talons seemed to be better at combat than the typical Talon. There was no time to consider this however, their initial charge having failed, the assassin Talons fell back and resorted to ranged weapons. The flurry of weapons was continuous, and Aerrow realized that as long as they were trapped here, the Talons had the advantage. With a nod to Piper, he leapt up onto Junko's shoulders and launched himself at the startled Talons, deflecting the scant few weapons that were thrown at him before he landed in the midst of the men. Without hesitation, he swept his blades in a full circle, forcing the Talons back into each other and disrupting their concerted attack on the other Storm Hawks near where Junko was. Taking his cue, Junko charged forward, plowing through the ranks of the assassins and forcing others to refocus their attacks, freeing the rest of the Sky Knights to counter-attack. Once their formation was broken, these Talons were no more difficult to defeat than normal Talons. True, they tended to be more subtle in their approach to combat, but it was nothing they had not tackled before.

With the last obstacle between them and Marrshal now eliminated, the Storm Hawks turned to face the spymaster, advancing on his position as the man continued to stand there watching them idly. Suspecting a trap, Aerrow fired an energy bolt at the spymaster, who promptly dodged out of the way and countered by throwing a spread of needles at the Storm Hawks. With inhuman speed, Marrshal raced forward, ramming Finn in the chest and sending the marksman skidding backwards.

"Yep…huhh… that's him…" Finn wheezed before taking aim and firing. Marrshal quickly spun around the arrow and grabbed Starling, kicking her across the room an instant later as the others rushed to engage him in combat. Rather than stand his ground and fight, Marrshal leapt upward and over the three other Storm Hawks, kicking Junko into Piper and Stork as he did so. However, as he somersaulted off Junko and landed, Aerrow noticed something peculiar about the spymaster's path through the air. Acting on intuition, he raced forward and swiped at Marrshal's head with his blades, forcing the man to dodge below the slash. As the spymaster came back up to counterattack, Aerrow flipped backwards, kicking Marrshal up into the air as he did so.

"You're using wires." Aerrow said flatly as the imposter landed flat on his back. "The real Marrshal was trained as a Sky Knight and, even though he failed, he still knew how to jump higher and farther than your typical person. Where's the real Marrshal?"

"How unfortunate, you saw through the deception faster than anticipated… The real Marrshal awaits you on Terra Polis, congratulations; you have followed your part perfectly until now." Kale said as he stood up, edging away from the blue energy blades Aerrow had leveled at him.

"Why there? What's so important about Terra Polis?" Piper asked as she motioned for the others to make sure their escape route was clear.

"Do you think I would know?"

"He trusted you enough to have you impersonate him."

"Good point, fine, I'll tell you what is so important about Polis… One word: population." The impersonator said, smirking at the Storm Hawks.

"Population? What does that mean…? Wait, psionic crystals! He must be planning to convert the terra." Aerrow said in alarm, "We need to get there now!"

"Way ahead of ya!" Finn shouted back to Aerrow and Piper as the Storm Hawks raced back to where they had infiltrated Nocturne. As they left, Kale quickly motioned to the other operatives, who suddenly roused from their unconsciousness and immediately set to tearing down all trace of this Nocturne. Should anyone return to this place, there would be nothing left but dark caverns winding through the bedrock…

* * *

The trip to Terra Polis only took a day and a half thanks to its relative proximity to Nocturne, but Aerrow was still worried, there was a good chance that they were already too late. Marrshal had delayed them for several days thanks to their search for answers, all of which had proven more disruptive than helpful. The man must have known that they would try to find out information on him and arranged for this opportunity to gain that knowledge, knowing full well that the Storm Hawks would take the bait. He had been so careful to hide his identity; no one had considered he would just give it away… Yet that was exactly what he had done. Aerrow grimaced internally as he stood up straighter, recognizing that they had reached their destination.

"How are communications?" Aerrow asked Stork as they approached one of the few open areas on the terra to land.

"Nothing unusual, everything seems to be normal." Stork said. "Of course, we could just be walking into a trap for all we know."

"Possible, but I don't think so, it would be too obvious." Aerrow said contemplatively. "Still, let's go investigate; we need to find out where Marrshal is planning to use those psionic crystals."

* * *

A few minutes later, the Storm Hawks had assembled outside the Condor and were looking over a map of the terra Piper had brought with her. Terra Polis was the most circular terras on Atmos, with the exception of irregularities common to geography it looked to be a perfect circle when viewed from above. Three equidistant hills and a central lake with an island broke the otherwise flat surface of the landmass, although thanks to the city that had nearly covered the small terra little of its original surface was visible. This unique geography had led to the city being divided into three sections, each centered around a hill. With this fact in mind, the Storm Hawks had divided into teams: Aerrow, Piper and Radarr would take the East District, Finn and Junko would take the West and Starling would team up with Stork to cover the North Lake District. Hopefully this would allow them to find Marrshal quickly and stop his plan.

"Sounds like an excellent plan." Marrshal suddenly said from behind them as they looked to see the spymaster standing in the doorway of the Condor. "Of course, as you can see, I am much easier to find than you thought. By the way Aerrow, good job on hiding those Dying Light crystals, it took some searching to find them, but now they are once again in Cyclonian hands, as they should be. Although I might ask why you did not destroy them when you had the chance... no good terras to destroy or possibly you just wanted to bury the past?"

"That was your plan?" Finn shouted as he pointed at the Merb and prevented Aerrow from having to respond to the spy's commentary, "Make us run across half the Atmos just so you could steal from us? Laammmeeee…"

"Actually no, the Dying Lights were just a nice bonus. You see, I know why the Ancients despise the Rex Guardians and I wanted to tell you so you could pick a side. After all, once I present this evidence from the famous Loremasters of Terra Rex, the Rex Guardians will likely be wanted for questioning. Or am I planning something much worse?" The spymaster said as he held up a message crystal.

"You maniac!"

"Thank you." Marrshal said gleefully as he teleported past the Storm Hawks and ran into the city, the Storm Hawks hot on his heels. As soon as he entered the city however, Marrshal vanished, having cloaked to create the illusion that he had teleported once more.

"Where did he go?" Starling said as she scanned through the crowds, trying to find the spy so they could stop him. Suddenly, she spotted something that she had not expected, but definitely did not bode well for them, given the circumstances... The Rex Guardians were visiting Polis on a goodwill tour, a tour which was met with cheers from half the crowd and jeers from the half that supported the Ancients. "Tell me; if the Rex Guardians did something really horrible to the Ancients and it became public… what do you think would happen considering the current rivalry between the two factions?"

"Oh no, powder keg…" Piper said in horror as she too spotted the Rex Guardians.

"Is it not wonderful?" Marrshal asked as he suddenly de-cloaked next to Aerrow and Piper, "And I did not even have to set up the situation."

"Not this time!" Starling said as she quickly grabbed the message crystal out of the spymaster's hands, shattering it with a blow from her nunchuku before the man could attempt to steal it back. "So much for your big plan."

"Too bad… It would have been prudent of me to have made several dozen copies of that crystal and distribute them across the most populous and important terras before meeting you here… You know, like planting them on Atmosia, Polis, Bast, Neon, Tropica and other terras of similar fame? Oh wait, I did!" Marrshal said with an evil grin as a giant illusion of the Loremasters appeared over the city. "Have fun…" he continued before he vanished.

"Attention people of Atmosia, we are the Loremasters of Terra Rex, keepers of histories. Since we are growing old and will pass on soon with no one to replace us, we felt that we must reveal a great travesty to the world so that we may pass on with clear consciences." The illusion said, speaking in the voice of the Loremasters even though this portion of the message had been doctored by Marrshal. "You see, the Sky Knights were founded millennia ago on a terra called Terra Anki. For several generations they protected Anki and the other inhabited terras until a great war broke out between them and the malevolent power known as the Stormweaver Order. Their battles raged across the whole of the Atmos, annihilating entire terras as each sought victory over the other. Eventually the Ancients were victorious and the Stormweaver Order was sealed away for all time. It should have been the dawn of a new era of peace, but this was not to be."

"One of the Ancients, a talented young man by the name of Osprey, decided to start his own branch of the Ancients. He stole the one crystal that kept the Atmos safe from the Stormweaver Order and fled to Terra Rex, where he founded the Rex Guardians. However, by stealing the crystal, he unleashed the Stormweavers once more and they laid waste to Terra Anki, reducing the Ancients from a force of thousands to a mere sixty. During this time, no one helped the Ancients, Osprey and his followers hid once they discovered they were not strong enough to fight off the Stormweavers on their own. While they were once again victorious, the Ancients forbade anyone from Terra Rex from ever setting foot on the ruins of Terra Anki. In response, Osprey and the Rex Guardians erased all record of the Ancients from history, claiming their place as the first Sky Knights. As a final insult, Osprey hid knowledge of this from future generations, establishing the Rex Guardians as the epitome of honor. Harrier, current leader of the Rex Guardians is a direct descendant of Osprey." The Loremasters said with finality, sounding a death knell for the peace they had just begun to enjoy.

"Not good…" Aerrow said as the murmurs of shock began to build into a cacophony of sound.

"Traitors!" Someone among the crowd suddenly shouted as they threw a rock at the Rex Guardians.

"Liars!" someone else yelled as they dove into the crowd to attack the rock thrower. From that simple act of violence, havoc quickly exploded into a full scale riot as Marrshal's agents among the crowd served as instigators, provoking others into joining the chaos. Mob mentality quickly took over, and the process began to accelerate as anonymity absolved people of the responsibility of thinking clearly and allowed them to be swept up into the pandemonium.

"We have to stop this!" Piper yelled above the rising din. "Otherwise we'll have a new war on our hands!"

_'Too late to stop it now.' _Marrshal said from above them, using a telepathy crystal to speak to the Storm Hawks so he did not have to shout. '_On every terra I planted these crystals on I also sent in instigators to ensure that riots followed soon afterward. Even on Terra Rex… There is nothing you can do to stop it.'_

With a cry of rage, Starling leapt at the spymaster to finish him off once and for all, but the spymaster vanished in a flash, leaving them with one final thought.

_'What will you do now Storm Hawks?'_


	6. The Sky Knight War

Legacy of Deceit

**Legacy of Deceit: The Sky Knight War**

The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.

Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.

Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.

**Chapter 1**

Within a few hours of the initial announcements, the riots that had started on perhaps a dozen terras had spread throughout the entirety of Free Atmos. Factionalism combined with rivalry had paved the way for the conflict, people forgot about the threat of Cyclonia since the empire had been in decline for two years now and focused on defending the honor and integrity of their favorite squadron. Such action would normally be considered madness, but the actions of Marrshal's instigators had whipped people into such a frenzy that rioting was the inevitable result.

Helpless to stop it on their own, the Storm Hawks had tried to convince Harrier and the other Rex Guardians to sneak out on the Condor so they could meet with the Ancients. Unfortunately, Harrier blamed the Ancients for the current situation, claiming that they only sought to 'impugn the good name of the Rex Guardians.' This had left them with two options: negotiate with the Ancients or ask for help from the Sky Knight Council. Given past history, negotiating with the Ancients seemed the better option, particularly since the Sky Knight Council had gone oddly silent at the start of this crisis, a cause for concern amongst the Storm Hawks. Hopefully the Ancients would be more willing to negotiate when they finally found them.

Marrshal returned to Cyclonia, confident that his agitators would properly guide the growing conflict among the Sky Knights in the right direction. It would be another day at least before he needed to step in again to ensure it ended as he wanted it to. In the meantime, he had a task to accomplish now that he had three of the four Dying Light crystals. Hence why he had come here to the medical center where Master Cyclonis, Night Aerrow and Dark Piper slept in stasis. It was time to reawaken them…

* * *

"Greetings sir, what are you doing here?" One of the on-duty medics asked as he looked up from his workspace.

"It is time to awaken them… Very soon I will no longer be able to maintain the illusion that Master Cyclonis is still acting as leader of Cyclonia and so she must regain consciousness to take her rightful place once more."

"Sir?"

"Quiet, I require absolute silence to do this; I will not risk being distracted." Marrshal said as he held up the three Dying Light crystals, then floated them over to slowly orbit around the tube that held Master Cyclonis. Confident that the crystals would continue to float where he wanted them to, he handed the levitation crystal over to the medic, ordering him to keep the crystal active no matter what. He then walked over to each of the crystals and touched each in turn, activating them and sending a pulse of energy through the tube where Master Cyclonis floated. After several minutes, the body inside the fluid began to stir, then suddenly awoke and began thrashing about, panic at possibly drowning overwhelming all other thoughts.

"Get her out of there!" Marrshal yelled at two of the other technicians in the center, "Before she has a panic attack." Acting on their orders, the two men began to drain the tube of fluid while Marrshal pocketed the Dying Light crystals and scattered a fine layer of crystal dust on the floor around the column. As the medics drained the last of the fluid, Master Cyclonis gasped loudly then suddenly stopped as if confused by something. She had plenty to be confused about, Marrshal's treatment had only brought here mind out of chaos and halted any further ravages from the plague on her body, but her condition was such that a simple treatment like that could not force it into remission. The leader of Cyclonia slowly stood up, looking at her physical form, which had been reduced to a matte black version of herself wearing her formal robes. Although the outline of her shape could still be seen, everything else was obscured by the dark material that had consumed her. Features such as her fingernails, mouth, hair color or the surface features of her cloak could no longer be seen and her eyes were only visible because they glowed a brilliant red similar to the color of a dying star.

"What has happened to me?" she said in wonder as she looked at her arm in amazement. A second later, she realized that she was surrounded by medics and her astonishment was replaced by the tone of command, "What has happened to me Marrshal?"

"We are not sure my lady; it was only by a risky treatment based on a lucky hypothesis that we were even able to rouse you from your slumber." Marrshal said flatly as he walked over to help her over the lip that marked where the tube had slid into the floor.

"How did you do it?"

"I used the Dying Light crystals to induce a chaotic environment, lessening the influence of your Chaos Crystal and allowing you to break free of the coma it forced you into. Unfortunately, the process destroyed the Dying Light crystals…" the spymaster explained, indicating the fine layer of crystal dust that surrounded the medical cell. None of his men had observed him pocketing the Dying Light crystals, so he knew his deception would go undetected by all. Besides, Master Cyclonis would be too preoccupied with what was going on to do anything but accept his word as truth. Perfect…

"What about Piper and Aerrow, did I…?" Master Cyclonis began then paused, as if she did not want to know whether she had succeeded or failed.

"Fear not, Night Aerrow and Dark Piper are here and in fine condition. The only problem is that they appear to be frozen in time, although according to observations that effect is beginning to decay along an exponential curve. It should only be a few hours, maybe a day at most." Marrshal answered soothingly as he consulted the latest reports from his technicians to ensure he was giving Master Cyclonis the most up-to-date information.

"Good… and Cyclonia?"

"After you lapsed into your coma, things went rather badly for us; we were handedly defeated in battles on Terra Rex and Atmosia. Rather than waste our forces trying to defend our vast holdings, the Dark Ace and I pulled our forces back to defend traditional Cyclonian territories, heavily fortifying those terras we intended to keep with resources we took from the Atmosian terras. We then sat back and let the Sky Knights wear themselves out battling the inhabitants of each converted terra. This strategy allowed us to soundly defeat them when they tried to invade our airspace, ensuring the security of Cyclonia. Using an illusion crystal and ventriloquism, I had you explain this to the citizens of Cyclonia and this has kept them content and confident in the future of Cyclonia. In summation, Cyclonia is stronger than it was before our invasion started. As for the Sky Knights, I have managed to spark a conflict between the Ancients and the Rex Guardians. Thanks to the factionalism the Sky Knights have undergone during the past two years, this conflict is rapidly expanding into a full scale civil war in Atmosia, especially since I disposed of the Sky Knight Council so they cannot bring their authority to bear."

"Sounds like you have everything well in hand… Good work Marrshal."

"Thank you my lady." Marrshal said as he helped Master Cyclonis find her way through the maze of passages to the normal hallways of Cyclonia. "I will let you know when Night Aerrow and Dark Piper awake."

"Very well, also, send for the Dark Ace, I am certain that he has been eager to see me restored to my rightful position."

"Of course, I am certain he will be quite happy to see you back on the throne, not that he would ever show it…" Marrshal said as he disappeared into the shadows. As soon as Night Aerrow and Dark Piper awoke, he would leave Cyclonia to ensure that the remainder of his plan went exactly as intended.

* * *

Eight hours later, while the other commanders were celebrating the return of Night Aerrow and Dark Piper, Marrshal left Cyclonia to head for Terra Rex. He had much to do if this plan was to succeed, all other concerns had to be secondary, especially considering that this was the best opportunity he would have to accomplish his goals. Everything depended on this, there must be no mistakes.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Storm Hawks had arrived on Atmosia, hoping that the Sky Knight Council might know where the Ancients were, their own search having been unsuccessful after two days of trying to contact them by radio. When they arrived however, they found guards stationed at every entrance and window of the Council building, an unusual occurrence under most conditions. Undeterred by the presence of the guards, Aerrow walked right up to the entrance, only to be stopped by the two men guarding the doors.

"Sorry Sir Aerrow, we cannot allow you to enter, the Council is deep in deliberations as to how to resolve the current crisis." The guard on the left said apologetically.

"Please let us pass; we might have a way to resolve the situation. After all, we have remained neutral and friendly with both factions and with our renown we might be able to convince both sides to sit down at the negotiation table." Aerrow responded, keeping his tone neutral. As he spoke, he could see that the man was struggling with the decision to let them in or not. Finally, after several seconds of thought, the guard moved out of the way and motioned for his compatriot to do the same.

"Thank you." Aerrow said in a grateful tone as he and the other Storm Hawks quickly ran inside. However, one look at the inside of the building told them that no one had been deliberating inside during the past few days. Throughout the building, daggers were sticking in furniture and lying on the floor, paintings had been shredded and the podium the Council sat on had been reduced to jagged chucks of wood and splinters.

"No…" Starling whispered as she spotted what appeared to be a leg sticking out from behind the remains of the Council's desk. Thankfully, with a second of observation, she quickly realized that it was just a leg from one of the statues honoring great Sky Knights of the past and did not belong to one of the Councilors. At some point while she was lost in shock Aerrow must have called the guards in because the two that had been guarding the door were now carefully sorting through the wreckage, looking for evidence of who committed this heinous act. Starling and the other Storm Hawks had already concluded who the perpetrator was, since only one person could do this without alerting the entire terra to what was going on. It appeared Marrshal had ensured the conflict's continued escalation since the Council was no longer around to try and stop the growing war.


	7. Chapter 7

Legacy of Deceit

**Legacy of Deceit: The Sky Knight War**

The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.

Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.

Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.

**Chapter 2**

No longer able to ask the Council for aid and unable to find the Ancients quickly, the Storm Hawks felt they had no option but to try with the Rex Guardians again, although that was a dim hope at best. As they arrived at Terra Rex though, they found their hopes restored and dashed all at the same time. The Ancients were already present on Terra Rex, the only problem was that they were fighting the Rex Guardians rather than negotiating. Likely due to Marrshal, the man was racking up quite a list of offenses here recently and this probably had seemed the perfect opportunity to add to his list.

"Like my handiwork?" Marrshal asked as he appeared at the rear of the Condor's bridge. "The Ancients had come to negotiate a cessation of hostilities with the Rex Guardians since Cyclonia is a much greater threat still, but those silly Rex Guardians tried to assassinate Vespos in retaliation for the lies he was spreading about their history. Such a shame, Vespos was even willing to end the conflict without any form of reparations whatsoever. Not anymore obviously, but he was."

"You creep…"

"Now, now, let us not point fingers and assign blame, those activities are not going to help resolve this situation. Not that I want to, that is your bag of tricks." Marrshal said as he vanished in a flash, likely heading to sow more havoc amongst the Sky Knights fighting outside. However, his departure was not greeted with the usual response of frustration but rather elation.

"Did you get it Piper?" Aerrow asked eagerly as he turned to the navigator.

"Yep! I got everything he said, he's not the only one who can play tricks with message crystals." Piper said happily as she held up a message crystal that she had been concealing on her person. On their way over, the Storm Hawks had decided that Piper should constantly carry around a message crystal since Marrshal had shown a predilection to brag about his accomplishments and that would give them all the evidence they needed to bring an end to this war.

"Great! Now we just have to find Vespos or Harrier." Aerrow said as he led the other Storm Hawks down to the hanger.

* * *

It did not take long to find Vespos thankfully, since the Ancients tended to stand out due to their Sky Knight moves. Aerrow drove toward him, shouting out the Ancient's name as he did so, hoping to catch the man's attention. It was not until he drew closer though that his yells were able to pierce the din of battle and reach Vespos.

"Yes, what is it Aerrow?" Vespos asked as soon as he heard the younger Sky Knight, motioning two other Ancients to take his place so that he could devote his full attention to talking with Aerrow.

"You're making a huge mistake." Aerrow said as he pulled out a message crystal, a duplicate of the one Piper had made. As the message played, he could see Vespos's startled expression, his shock at how they had been manipulated. "See? This is all a Cyclonian plot."

"This must not continue then." Vespos said with fierce determination as he pulled out a horn of some kind and blasted a single loud note out across the battlefield. Instantly, every Ancient ceased their fighting and sat at attention, only defending themselves when necessary. This did not last long however as Harrier noticed the sudden decrease in the pitch of the battle and ordered his men to stand down as well before flying over to meet with Aerrow.

"What is the meaning of this?" Harrier asked in confusion.

"Aerrow has convinced us to negotiate a truce with you Rex Guardian." Vespos said gruffly, obviously embarrassed to admit how they had been manipulated.

"Very well, since according to the Loremasters we wronged you, honor demands that we make reparations. What is it you would ask of us?" Harrier said, swallowing his pride for a rare minute of humility.

"You can keep your title as the first Sky Knight squadron; we only want the Crystal of Infinite Skies returned to us so that we may finally stop our endless slumber and rejoin the waking world again."

"The Crystal of Infinite Skies? Never heard of it, otherwise I would happily give it to you." Harrier replied.

"It is the crystal your ancestor stole from us, a crystal of incomparable beauty that looks as though it were crafted of the purest light. It is the crystal that powers our most powerful technologies, connects the infinite skies to each other and allowed us to 'speak' with the crystals to develop our many Sky Knight Moves. If and only if it is returned to us will we stop this conflict." Vespos said in a reverent tone.

"Made of pure light you say? I think I know where it is, it's the main light for the Great Hall of Terra Rex."

"YOU USED IT AS A LAMP?!" Vespos yelled in an uncharacteristic outburst of rage, clearly shocked that a crystal of such power would be relegated to such a menial task.

"We had no idea what it did." Harrier answered honestly as he flinched. "For what it's worth it always was my favorite crystal to contemplate when I was a child…" Harrier suddenly went silent as Vespos glared at him. "I'll just go get it now and we can put this whole unpleasantness behind us."

"Good idea." Finn observed dryly as the Rex Guardian flew off to find the crystal that promised to end this conflict.

* * *

Harrier quickly ran into the Great Hall of Terra Rex, immediately spotting the crystal where it sat as the centerpiece of the central chandelier. He could not believe that his ancestors had wronged the Ancients, but the Loremasters did not lie and so he had to set things right. If giving up this crystal would set things right again, then he would happily do so.

"It's not like the crystal was useful anyways except as a light source." Harrier thought aloud as he climbed up to the crystal.

"Incorrect, it is much more useful than you could possibly imagine." A voice said from below. Harrier immediately looked down to see a cloaked figure standing right below the chandelier, his face shrouded in shadows even though he was looking up at Harrier. "Although I must thank you Harrier, without your help I never would have found the Crystal of Infinite Skies."

"Who are you and why do you want this crystal?" Harrier asked sharply, instantly on his guard after hearing what the other man had to say.

"I am Marrshal, spymaster of Cyclonia… Now give me the crystal, my patience wears thin."

"Cyclonian dog, you will not profane this crystal by handing it over to Cyclonis!"

"You misunderstand…" Marrshal said malevolently as he kicked the ladder out from under Harrier. As the Rex Guardian fell, Marrshal leapt up to meet him and punched him in the stomach as the two neared each other. Breathless, Harrier hit the ground and rolled off to one side then moaned in pain as he felt several points of sharp pain in his back.

"Good night Harrier, by the time you awake the bargain you struck with Vespos will be shattered beyond hope of repair."


	8. Chapter 8

Legacy of Deceit

**Legacy of Deceit: The Sky Knight War**

The Storm Hawks world concept is copyright to Nerd Corps and Asaph Fipke.

Aerrow, Stork, Piper, Starling, Junko, Finn, Radarr and other Sky Knights are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Master Cyclonis, Dark Ace, Ravess, Snipe and the Talons are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Repton and the Raptors are the intellectual property of Asaph Fipke and copyright to Nerd Corps.

Ageless Specter, Lord Xivor and The Ancients are the intellectual property of AgelessSpecter and used with permission.

Marrshal, Psychos and Lord Astrel are my intellectual property; please credit them as such if for some reason you use them.

**Chapter 3**

After several tense minutes of waiting, Aerrow breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Harrier heading up from Terra Rex to meet with them and hopefully exchange the crystal that would bring an end to this senseless battle. In short order Harrier had reached the gathering of Storm Hawks and Ancients and stood up to face them. As he did so, he brought out a small crystal that shone with amazing brilliance and, as Aerrow examined the crystal more closely it looked as though the gem itself had been crafted by capturing the light at dawn and solidifying it into physical form. It was an indescribably beautiful gem and Aerrow could see why the Ancients wanted it back so badly.

"Is this the crystal you want?" Harrier asked as he held out the jewel.

"Yes, please return it to us."

"No." Harrier said, surprising everyone there as he pulled out his sword. "If I cannot have this crystal as is my birthright then no one shall." He continued as he smashed the crystal into thousands of shards with his blade and then dropped the remains into the Wasteland below before turning and racing off through the sky.

"TRAITOR! YOU HAVE DOOMED ALL THE ATMOS!" Vespos yelled as he and the other Ancients ignited their weapons and pursued Harrier, their rage overriding all other concerns. As they charged forward though, other Rex Guardians swooped in to block their pursuit and safeguard Harrier. In response, the ceasefire ended as the Rex Guardians opened fire in order to protect their leader. Immediately afterward, combatants on both sides clashed in melee combat, the violence of the previous battle paling in comparison to the renewed feud. Thankfully, the Storm Hawks were largely ignored since they were not technically aligned with either side, which was good since it gave them time to think through what had just happened. It did not take them long to figure out though...

"That was Marrshal!" Piper yelled, pointing out where he had disappeared among the buildings of Terra Rex. The Storm Hawks set off in pursuit, hoping to catch the spymaster while he had no place to dodge to, but those hopes were dashed a minute later as Marrshal shot out from between the buildings riding a skimmer of a type the Storm Hawks had never seen before. As he flew away from Terra Rex, Marrshal waved back at the Storm Hawks, taunting them to follow him. This was one taunt that the Storm Hawks would take up though as the only way to stop the war was to bring the man in and explain what had happened. To their surprise however, Marrshal stopped a short ways away from Terra Rex and turned to face them.

"There, we should be safe enough here…" the spymaster said cryptically as he played with one of his knives idly.

"What does that mean?" Starling asked, voicing the same confusion the other Storm Hawks felt.

"Ah yes, you see, while you were off trying to stop the war I came up with my own solution to the crisis: mutual destruction." Marrshal explained with a maniacal grin on his face as he held up the real Crystal of Infinite Skies. "You may not have noticed, but the crystal energy of all the crystals near Terra Rex is being drained away by a special crystal designed to mimic the energy field of the Black Gorge. Unlike the Black Gorge however, this energy is not lost but rather is being stored in a massive artificial leecher crystal constructed around the fourth Dying Light crystal which I isolated so its energy would not be drained. With each passing moment that leech crystal grows closer to the critical energy mass required for it to detonate, even if you stop the battle now there are enough crystals in use on Terra Rex to ensure the leech crystal reaches critical here in the next twenty minutes or so. When that happens the Dying Light Crystal will be destroyed in an instant and you remember what happened when the Aurora Stone was merely cracked. Imagine what would happen if a crystal of similar power were destroyed, all of its energy released at once. Good bye Terra Rex, you are about to suffer the same fate as Terra Anki. So make your choice, pursue me and retrieve the Crystal of Infinite Skies or save the innocent people of Terra Rex, just remember that either way I win." Marrshal finished before he flew off, putting more distance between himself and the doomed terra.

"Piper, find that bomb! The rest of you start evacuating everyone on Terra Rex, I'm going after Marrshal!" Aerrow yelled as he made a snap decision.

"Right!" the other Storm Hawks responded as they flew back to Terra Rex to complete their assigned missions. Without pause, Aerrow took off after Marrshal, determined to stop him and retrieve the crystal.

* * *

Piper raced through the streets of Terra Rex on her skimmer, tracking down the emanations of the leecher crystal using the latest version of her crystal radar while panicked people rapidly ran to the airfields from their homes, desperate to escape before the terra was destroyed. Thankfully, many people had already left due to the battle so the task was not impossible, provided everyone hurried. By the look of her radar, the leecher crystal was hidden somewhere near the center of the terra, which made sense, all things considered. Finally arriving at the location, Piper looked around; finding herself in the middle of a town plaza, no sign of the bomb in sight even though she technically should be standing right next to the device. It did not take much thought to know that the device was buried; the only question was where and how deep. Given the amount of time Marrshal had spent on this scheme, as well as the distance shown on her radar when she pointed it downward, Piper guessed that she would never be able to reach it in time… And even if she could, how could she defuse it in time? There was no way to stop it, Terra Rex was doomed.

* * *

Aerrow sped through the skies, relentlessly pursuing Marrshal no matter how hard he tried to escape his adversary. For his part, Marrshal was becoming quite fed up with this chase; it did not fit into his plan. There was a solution though, an easy guaranteed way to get Aerrow off his tail even if it meant giving up the Crystal of Infinite Skies… but as long as Aerrow pursued him he could not complete his plan anyways, which was not necessarily a bad thing in this case.

"You want this so badly?" Marrshal shouted back to Aerrow as he held up the crystal. Although Aerrow gave no vocal answer, the flurry of energy blasts was all the answer Marrshal could have hoped for. "Fine, go and get it from the Wastelands!" he yelled as he threw the small jewel straight down.

Aerrow immediately dove to grab the crystal, Marrshal might escape for now, but this crystal was vital to restoring the peace and presenting a unified front against Cyclonia and so it had to be the higher priority. As he dove toward the area where the gem had fallen, something like a gentle nudge in the back of his mind alerted him that something was wrong, but there was no time to worry about that now, he had to find the crystal. Luckily the gem was easy enough to find thanks to its brilliant glow and Aerrow was able to easily track it as it fell through the clouds toward the Wastelands. It did not fall as quickly as he had expected though and he was able grab the crystal before it broke through into the Wastelands. Then, with crystal in hand, he headed back for Terra Rex to hopefully end this fight for the last time.

* * *

By the time he arrived back at the terra however, the battle had already stopped, the combatants distracted by the mass evacuation of inhabitants, especially after they learned the reason for that evacuation. Rex Guardian and Ancient were working together to pull people off Terra Rex before it was too late and considering how long the battle had been raging that point could not be far off. He hoped that Piper was safe no matter what she was doing; hopefully disarming the bomb that Marrshal had planted.

"Aerrow!" Piper suddenly yelled from off to his left.

"Piper! What is going on?"

"The device was buried; I can't get to it in time." Piper explained. As if to punctuate her statement, Aerrow saw a mass of rock fly upward from the center of the terra, lofted skyward by an explosive blast. An instant later a massive concussive blast washed over the craft around the terra as a wave of crimson energy tore the terra apart, fracturing the terra and sending massive chunks of rock tumbling into the Wasteland while vaporizing areas closer to the center of the terra entirely. Before Aerrow realized it, the destructive display was over, leaving behind nothing but a mountainous cratered peak where Terra Rex had once stood above the clouds and a deafening silence. While he had not been before, Marrshal would now certainly be the most wanted man on all of Atmos for this act. The one good thing that had come of it was that the war was over, although it did not seem to be worth the cost.

"We were acting foolishly…" Vespos said from his position beside Aerrow, startling the younger Sky Knight. "We allowed our desire to avenge our fallen comrades override our common sense. The past cannot be undone, no matter how much we want it to be. And even though we did not seek to change the past we still tried to avenge it even knowing what was truly happening… No one, not even the Rex Guardians, deserves to have their home terra destroyed."

"There is still a chance to change the future though, lay your issues with the Rex Guardians to rest. Join the rest of the Atmos, I mean no one even knows where your terra really is save it's in the Rift. At the very least you can trust us." Aerrow said calmly.

"Without the Crystal of Infinite Skies we can never rejoin the rest of the Atmos, we are bound by our oaths as Archoni'ent to prevent the Stormweavers from entering the waking world and destroying everyone. Without that crystal we must eventually return to the dreamscape to fight them."

"Then I suppose it is a good thing I was able to retrieve it from Marrshal." Aerrow said as he held up the crystal.

* * *

Much later on Atmosia, Aerrow handed the Crystal of Infinite Skies over to Vespos, completing the negotiations between the Ancients and the Rex Guardians. Although it was no longer necessary to use it as a peace offering Harrier had still wanted it returned to the Ancients in order to reduce the tension between the two groups. Vespos had happily accepted the gift and said that the Ancients would try to be more respectful of the Rex Guardians, although they could never forget what they had done. The memories of those lost due to Osprey's betrayal was simply too fresh for them to forgive his descendent completely even though it had not been his wrong. Harrier had accepted that and was willing to work with the Ancients toward furthering a friendly relationship between the two groups. It would likely be a long and arduous process considering that, for the Ancients, this was a recent event while the Rex Guardians had long forgotten the incident that created the rivalry.

"Aerrow, you said you retrieved this from Marrshal?" Vespos said suddenly as he examined the crystal.

"Yes, why?" Aerrow asked, confused.

"This is a fake; this is not the real crystal." Vespos replied as the glow from the crystal suddenly faded and he easily crushed it in one hand. In response, Harrier flinched as if fearing some kind of retaliation from the Ancient. "I will not fall for this trick again, this could not have been Harrier's doing, the fake was too perfect to be the work of anyone but a master of the crystal arts."

"Master Cyclonis?" Aerrow asked rhetorically, suspecting that it was a forgone conclusion, especially given the powers that she had acquired over the past few years.

"No, she could not have known about the crystal beforehand, there was no record of it in any historical text or in legend, save the knowledge held by the Loremasters." Harrier said suddenly as he remembered something. "In addition, that man, Marrshal or whatever, when he confronted me I said that he would not hand the crystal over to Cyclonis. I remember he said something about me not understanding… I don't think he was going to turn it over to her. Possibly because he destroyed the real crystal?"

"No," Vespos said, taking up Harrier's line of reasoning, "All Ancients are connected to the Crystal of Infinite Skies, we can sense it if it stills exists. Somehow he blocked that during the incident over Terra Rex but now I sense it once more."

"Then that means that Marrshal still has the real Crystal of Infinite Skies…" Aerrow said, drawing the obvious conclusion.

"This bodes ill for us, particularly since Marrshal was able to block our crystal sense. I know of no force on Atmos that could do that… Not even the crystalmancers of the Stormweaver Order were capable of such a feat."

"Then how did Marrshal do it?"

"A good question, but more importantly we should be asking who he is working for if not Cyclonia. His statements lead me to conclude that much." Vespos mused darkly.

"And if he is not really working for Cyclonia, then what does he intend to do with the crystal?"

* * *

Marrshal flew through the empty skies in a forgotten part of the Atmos, watching as he neared the Great Expanse, his heart descending deeper into sorrow as he neared the forboding region, slowly numbing him to the horrors of what would come. Even though his ultimate goals would be achieved, this was not the method he would have preferred, but it was the way things had to be since he could not force a choice on Aerrow, not with his current affiliations. As a result, he had everything he needed to end the Atmos: the three remaining Dying Light Crystals and the Crystal of Infinite Skies. These were the four items he needed, generously donated by both the Sky Knights and Cyclonia… The Atmos would not know what awaited them…

* * *

"…it would seem that Aerrow was unable to reclaim his legacy. A pity really, events would have been far easier to bear if the Oracle had not tampered with the weave of fate. Well, we prepared for this outcome, so I think we can release the Oracle from her temporal slumber and let her act as our harbinger." The Ageless Specter said casually as he watched the events on Atmos unfold.

"That outcome is more fun though." Psychos said with a smirk as he gave orders to the appropriate subordinates.

"Too true…"

_

* * *

_

Society needs change; it is a necessary facet if it is to continue existing. When a society becomes set in its ways, the path ahead becomes dark and obscured, not illuminated and predictable as one would expect. In my research of history I have found the reason for this and that is why I am so desperate to change our world… Or should I become an agent of that Darkness? Either way I condemn myself, but if I join the Dark then at least I will have a guide, a restraint. Still, it is a conundrum for me, if my goals are benevolent how can I use malevolent means to achieve them? Ultimately, it will not matter I suppose, whichever path I choose shall leave me marred forever...

Entry in Aviv's Journal three weeks prior to his death

* * *

Author Note:

I hope you enjoyed Legacy of Deceit and will continue to enjoy the conclusion of this tale in the next section, Void Horizon.

Alternatively, I wrote another outcome for this story called Destiny of Honor that leads along a different series of events, hence why it is not included in this story arc. Since I would like to share both stories, I am curious to know if anyone is interested in sharing their thoughts on how they would like me to post the stories: Void Horizon first, Destiny of Honor first or both simultaneously. If you want, please let me know in any reviews you post, thank you in advance.

As an aside, whatever the final decision is, the next story/ stories in the series will be published May 4th, 2008.


End file.
